i34 
Accidental or Facultative Parasites 
and abdomen appeared normal. She was not very wasted, and did 
not think she had lost much flesh, nor was there any marked degree 
of anemia.” 
Shipley gives the following reasons for believing it impossible 
that these centipedes could have multiplied in the patient’s intestine. 
‘‘The breeding habits of the genus Geophilus are peculiar, and ill 
adapted for reproducing in such a habitat. The male builds a small 
web or nest, in which he places his sperm, and the female fertilizes 
herself from this nest or web, and when the eggs are fertilized they 
are again laid in a nest or web in which they incubate and in two or 
three weeks hatch out. The young Geophilus differ but very little 
from the adult, except in size. It is just possible, but improbable, 
that a clutch of eggs had been swallowed by the host when eating 
some vegetables or fruit, but against this is the fact that the Geophilus 
does not lay its eggs upon vegetables or fruit, but upon dry wood or 
earth. The egg-shell is very tough and if the eggs had been swallowed 
the egg-shells could certainly have been detected if the dejecta were 
examined. The specimens of the centipede showed very little signs 
of being digested, and it is almost impossible to reconcile the story 
of the patient with what one knows of the habits of the centipedes.” 
In none of the observed cases have there been any clear indica¬ 
tions as to the manner of infestation. It is possible that the myria¬ 
pods have been taken up in uncooked fruit or vegetables. 
Lepidopterous Larvae 
Scholeciasis — Hope (1837) brought together six records of infesta¬ 
tion of man by lepidopterous larvae and proposed to apply the name 
scholeciasis to this type of parasitism. The clearest case was that 
of a young boy who had repeatedly eaten raw cabbage and who 
vomited larva; of the cabbage butterfly, Pieris brassiere. Such cases 
are extremely rare, and there are few reliable data relative to the 
subject. In this connection it may be noted that Spuler (1906) has 
described a moth whose larvae live as ectoparasites of the sloth. 
COLEOPTERA 
Canthariasis —By this term Hope designated instances of acci¬ 
dental parasitism by the larvae or adults of beetles. Reports of 
such cases are usually scouted by parasitologists but there seems no 
good basis for wholly rejecting them. Cobbold refers to a half 
dozen cases of accidental parasitism by the larvae of Flaps mortisaga. 
